Accusations by the New York attorney general that the flayed cadavers in a traveling anatomy display are those of executed Chinese prisoners will not prevent the opening of the exhibit at Ala Moana Center in two weeks, organizers said yesterday.

"Bodies ... The Exhibition," which has displayed preserved cadavers and body parts across the Mainland and in several foreign countries, has sparked protests among human rights groups and government officials since it began touring in 2005.

At issue in New York was the source of the cadavers, which are preserved using a process that removes water from the body and replaces it with a polymer — dubbed "plastination" by its creators.

The rubberized cadavers, which have been stripped of their skin and dissected for display purposes, are posed in activities that demonstrate how the body functions, from kicking a soccer ball to reading.

The displays were created by Premier Exhibitions Inc., an Atlanta-based company that has long maintained the cadavers are unclaimed bodies on loan from Chinese medical officials.

"The bodies come through accredited medical schools that obtain them legally and then provide them to us," said Roy Glover, chief medical director at Premier and a professor emeritus of anatomy at the University of Michigan. "Our responsibility is to display them respectfully and to use them for an educational purpose."

The company earned more than $12.3 million off its exhibits last year, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

"The grim reality is that Premier Exhibitions has profited from displaying the remains of individuals who may have been tortured and executed in China," New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo said in a written statement. "Despite repeated denials, we now know that Premier itself cannot demonstrate the circumstances that led to the death of the individuals. Nor is Premier able to establish that these people consented to their remains being used in this manner. Respect for the dead and respect for the public requires that Premier do more than simply assure us that there is no reason for concern."

settlement in N.Y.

In a settlement reached with New York, Premier agreed to obtain documentation of the cause of death and origin of the bodies as well as the consent of the deceased to have their remains displayed.

For unclaimed remains previously obtained, the company must post notices including: "This exhibit displays human remains of Chinese citizens or residents which were originally received by the Chinese Bureau of Police. The Chinese Bureau of Police may receive bodies from Chinese prisons. Premier cannot independently verify that the human remains you are viewing are not those of persons who were incarcerated in Chinese prisons."

Premier will put $50,000 in escrow to provide ticket refunds to customers who said they wouldn't have attended the exhibition if they had known the questionable origins of the bodies and parts it displays, Cuomo said.

The settlement does not apply outside New York.

Premier officials said they were pleased with the outcome of the settlement.

But in settling with New York officials, Premier maintained that Cuomo's findings did not constitute an admission of wrongdoing. Instead, Premier would only say it could not "independently confirm" that the cadavers were not taken from executed prisoners.

"The company must rely on the affirmations of its Chinese supplier, the head of anatomy at the Dalian Medical University, a teaching hospital recognized by the World Health Organization, that these specimens do not come from the remains of executed prisoners," Premier said in a written statement.

Cuomo's office believes the settlement will end the practice of using "human remains of suspect origins" because it requires Premier to document the cadaver's origin and cause of death before future displays will be allowed in New York. A human rights group in Washington, D.C., agreed with that conclusion.

"Because of this settlement, it is now less likely that Premier and its competitors will obtain specimens from China for display not just in New York, but anywhere in the United States," said Kirk Donahoe, assistant director of the Laogai Research Foundation. "We call upon other law enforcement authorities to take similar action in other states and to help to bring these abuses to an end."

TRUST IN ORGANIZER

That may not be what happens in Hawai'i, however. The exhibit is scheduled to open June 14 and run at least through Jan. 18 at a new Ala Moana exhibition hall near Nordstrom. Tickets are $26 for adults. Ala Moana officials yesterday said they were comfortable with Premier's claims.

"Prior to finalizing the lease agreement, Ala Moana Center had the opportunity to review the exhibit and we trust that the organizer is operating in a respectable and professional manner," said center spokesman Matthew Derby.

The Hawai'i attorney general's office, which was unaware of the New York settlement, is not investigating the accusations against Premier, said Bridget Holthus, special assistant to the attorney general.

But Scott Lozanoff, chairman of the anatomy department at the University of Hawai'i's John A. Burns School of Medicine, said Premier's current method of acquiring cadavers relies on "a lot of shortcuts that are not acceptable or ethical."

"Just because it is an unclaimed body doesn't mean that person was useless," Lozanoff said. "That person had a life and that life has to be valued just as someone whose body is going to be claimed by a relative. Just because it is unclaimed doesn't mean you can do what you want to do."

The medical school, like those across the country, relies on individuals donating their bodies for student use. Students dissect them to learn how the body functions.

Donors know ahead of time what will happen to their remains, Lozanoff said. The medical school uses about 50 to 60 cadavers a year.

"The medical profession is based on informed consent," Lozanoff said. "If you are going to use tissue from a patient, you have to make it very clear what it is going to be used for and where it is going to be used. It means the patient is aware of what they are donating and (what) it is for."

The Associated Press and Bloomberg News Service contributed to this report.